MINI VACATION DAY 3 JULY 27TH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! The 27th was my 41st birthday. We had to check out of the hotel by 11am so we made use of the pool at 9am. i was a wimp and thought it to cold, but Coco and Scott had loads of fun. The poor girl can't do anything in the water without holding her nose. I think we are going to look for some swimming lessons to break this habit. Scott tried to teach her to dive but her little legs would bend and she would fall in the water instead of diving. She would rather do this anyway.
Over and over! Thank goodness Scott is a strong boy!

After we checked out we went to lunch at Olive Garden and then drove north to Bass Pro in Springfield. Oh we couldn't be so close and not go. I know they have one at Branson Landing but he was looking for something particular and hoped the outlet in Springfield would have it. No such luck but he did get himself a digital camera that you attach to a tree in the woods. It takes photos every few seconds so he can see what is going on at his honey hole.

We had dinner theatre tickets for Dixie Stampede at 5:30 so we headed back to Branson.

Such a beautiful building and grounds.

We were not allowed to take photos inside the show but this cute girl was nice enough to pose with Coco for me. Don't you just love Coco's hat? We bought that at the shop in the hotel. She is really into hats this year.

Since I couldn't take pictures of the show, I took pictures everywhere else. This is the bathroom. Isn't it darling.

I love the stall doors. We were Southerners and sat on the south side during the show too.

I did get this photo inside the theatre before they got on to me. It is the table setting when you get there. You can't tell in the picture but there is no silverware, you use your hands for everything.

We ate creamy veggie soup, a whole little chicken, herbed potato wedge, cheese biscuit, pork tenderloin, apple turnover and all the pepsi or tea you wanted. The food was very good.

These are the horse stalls when you walk in. All the horses they use during the show are here.

I thought Willow was a beautiful horse!

After Dixie we stopped at Gator Golf because Scott had promised Coco we would play again before leaving. Then we walked over to Andy's frozen custard before driving home. We made it home before 11pm and we both had taken Tuesday off so we hung out at home for the day resting up before going back to work.

So that was our vacation for this year, it wasn't Destin but that's ok we are already planning to go back to Destin next spring.

I didn't get to my scrapbooking today, I got up late again, didn't make it to church but I did get the house cleaned and most of the laundry done for the week. It was a great day and I just realized it is 11:21pm and I have to go to work tomorrow. So goodnight, I gotta get to bed.

Blessings,

Pam

DAY 2 CONTINUED

Whew, I got side tracked the past couple of days. I gotta get this done before I forget everything. I wanted to show you a couple more photos from the wax museum. See if you recognize these next 2.


You gotta know who these 2 are. I will give you a hint "Your Fired" and the other started a nasty girly magazine and dates young girls.


After the wax people we went to the Tanger outlet mall. We didn't shop much but we were there for a few hours. Old Navy had the best sales, 40% off everything in the store. I bought some workout clothes and Coco 3 outfits for very little moola. We also found her 2 pairs of cleats for softball at the Nike store. 1 pair she will have to grow into but for $7.29 we had to buy them. I will store them until she fits.

All that shopping we worked up an appetite. We went to Shorty Smalls because we had coupons and we used the free onion whatever they called it. It was ok but we won't be in a hurry to go back on our next trip. We did win a big coupon book while we were there. One of the timeshare companies works with shortys and they seat you. They give you this envelope to bring to their both after dinner and whatever is in it you get to keep, no strings attached. Well we let Coco open it and it had the coupon book. We hightailed it outa there before they could get us to talking.

We wanted to go see the Titanic but were kind of on the fence because I had heard good and bad things about it. Well, the coupon book had $2.00 off each admission so we went for it. It ended up being one of our favorite tours we did in Branson. We each got a card with a persons name on it and were told to watch for information on our person throughout the tour. There is alot of reading but we were so amazed by it all that reading was good. We could actually take our time and see all this history. Even Coco said it was her favorite too. They wouldn't allow photos so I only got some of the outside.

If you are in Branson I would recommend this. We watched the movie tonight with Coco. She sat still for the entire thing and loved it. Some of it she didn't get but she will someday.

Thanks for checking out our mini vaca. I will finish up with day 3 on Monday. I am going to scrapbook our trip tomorrow after church and I will show you some of that too.

Blessings,

Pam

MINI VACATION DAY 2

Sunday started with the buffet breakfast at the hotel and then on to the Indoor waterpark.

Coco already tired of me taking pictures.

This Daddy coming down the waterslide. I wasn't sure it was him and then we couldn't see him anyway. I got out of that slide, since we didn't have a chance to go back before we left for home.

We did partake in the Lazy River but I felt weird like everyone was going pee pee in it. The water was warm and it looked kinda yellow in places so I didn't stay in too long. Coco kept playing around and I had to keep telling her not to put her face in that water. I am just a nit pick.

I liked it outside much better. I layed out while she played. This is her coming down the slide, she did get me on this one but I will not be showing that picture!

We ate a late breakfast so for lunch we went to Maggie Moo's Ice Cream Parlor! I had never been there before and oh my their ice cream is soooooo goooooood. Coco and I had the dark chocolate with butterfinger folded in. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMY!

Do you love Wax Museum's? It is one of my favorite things in the world. I have been to this one before and 1 in Hot Springs. I want to go to a Madam Tousseau's (sp?). Maybe if we go to Vegas for our anniversary I will go there. Anyway we did the tour of the was people. It amazes me how real some of them look.
Coco hasn't seen the movie Titanic yet so she doesn't get the whole effect of this pose, but she will. The movie is on our list for this weekend. I will tell you why later.

I dream of Jeannie! She was a good sport through it all. We saw Tom Hanks as forest, Matt Damon in the Bourne Identity, The wizard of oz characters, Jack Black as Nacho Libre now that was funny and it looked just like him. I haven't seen the movie but you know it was funny.

I will finish up day 2 tomorrow. We had a good time while there.

Blessings,

Pam

MINI VACATION DAY 1

We left Saturday morning for a few days here.

Our first stop Ripley's Believe It of Not. This was not as fun as I remember it when I was younger. Coco did enjoy it though.
We stayed at the Grand Country Inn with the indoor waterpark and they had several buildings of fun stuff to do. We hit the fun spot Saturday night for pizza and play.

We did mini golf with black lights. This was so cool. My french manicure really glowed as did our clothes. So fun
We got back late Monday night. Had a great little trip packed full of fun and family time. More of our trip to come.

Blessings,

Pam

LIONS & TIGERS & BEARS OH MY

We have had a great day. We spent the day in Eureka Springs. Mostly here at the Turpentine Creek Refuge. This is just outside Eureka and they rescue and care for big cats and other animals that people have tried to have as pets or they were in danger some other way.

Scott and CocoMe and Coco. The weather was so nice, it was actually hot outside.

They had probably 40 tigers and they are huge!

Such beautiful animals.

My favorite of the day were the Lions. Their heads with the big mane is so regal!

He looks kinda grouchy but he was just lounging in his cage. Until it was feeding time. We ran around Eureka until 5pm when they start feeding. Wow was that a experience. With the warm weather the cats are kind of lazy during the day but when it is about time for food they are all pacing and roaring. So cool. We even got to see them get a little aggressive when they thought someone was going to get their food. They eat 7-15 lbs of chicken or beef that is donated from Tyson & Walmart at each feeding. Some might think it is cruel to have them caged up but at least they are being cared for. The sad thing is the people that get them as babies and think they can have them as pets. This place was cleaner than any zoo I have ever been to. They have lots of volunteers and interns that work there.

This is the Christ of the Ozarks statue. We took Coco to see it at the Great Passion Play. Everything else was closed since it was Sunday but she was in awe of how big this is. I always love to go see it.

This is Scott and Coco waving at me from the top of the lookout. I don't know how far it is up but I know the last time I tried I got to about the 3rd level and mostly crawled down. That is when I knew I had aged. I had never before been afraid of heights but now I won't even think about it. They did fine and Coco loved every minute of it.

This was our spring break fun since I can't take off work (new employer might frown on that), we wanted to do something with her and we are so glad we picked this place instead of Springfield or Tulsa. She gets to go to the zoo with her Nana and Papa this week too. Someday I want to plan our vaca around her break and tour all of Arkansas. I was born and raised here but there are several parts of the state that I have never seen. Maybe next year.

I hope all you other spring breakers enjoy your time off! Have a great week!

Blessings,

Pam

This is how we spent our last night in Destin. Eating crab legs. Yum Yum The photos are my SIL and MIL and Me. We all ordered 1.5 lbs each and it took us awhile to finish but they were so worth it. We love crab legs. Cant ya tell! The guys finished about 30 minutes before us and had to take the kiddos outside to wait for us.

I wasn't stopping to fix a silly bra strap! ha ha

This is us on the front porch of our beach house. We always hate saying goodbye.

We stopped here on our way home. I think it is really cool but some people are obsessed. I saw one older woman with tattoes of Elvis on each arm. No offense to anyone but that seemed a little over the top. We did listen to a cd I bought all the way home. He was dreamy back in the 50's! But as Colby said not as dreamy as my Dad.


We also went to Neely's Barbeque in Memphis. They have a show on Food Network. Have ya'll seen it? Well that is why we wanted to go. It was the biggest let down. The place was a hole in the wall and dirty. I have never received such bad service at any other restaurant. Our waiter took our orders, brought us our drinks and we never saw him again. There were probably 3 to 4 other tables with people when we walked in and then it began to fill up. 2 large tables began getting their food before us and when we finally got ours it was just for half of us. One of the Neely brothers came over to see if we had everything and I told him Sandy and I still didn't have our food and Scott needed more sauce. They finally brought ours and it was cold. The sauce Scott got was in a tiny little container. They don't put the BBQ sauce on the table. I plan to write a letter of complaint to them and to Food Network.

I have to go scrap grout out of the bathroom tub area so that I can regrout and replace some tiles tomorrow morning.

I had a great day today, will post about it tomorrow!

MORE

To begin tonight I want everyone to please pray for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. Their 5 year old daughter was killed last night in a freak accident. My heart breaks for them. I can't imagine what they are going through.

These are some of us posing for pictures at the beach and at the house. First time I convinced Scott to wear pink. Doesn't he look good.

Colby and I in front of the pool. I am not sure about this new camera. Most of my photos turned out really dark in the face.

Sunset on the beach.

Isn't she lovely! The first time I took photos of her on this beach she was only 3 years old and so much smaller. Where did the time go.

I can't seem to get caught up on rest since coming home from Florida. I don't know what the deal is. I kinda think it might be all the eating out we have done for the past 2 weeks. So i am off to bed early tonight.

Have a great Friday!

Vacation

Here are some more photos from our trip. This first one is us eating at Jimmy Buffet's Margaretaville(sp) in Panama City. Inside the restaurant you can sit in these boats that are built in for tables. It is so cool. I had the best Cheeseburger in Paradise that I have ever had.

This is where we had the most fun all week. At Gulf World so that Colby could swim with the Dolphins. We also stayed for the Dolphin show.

This is my little 7 year old hanging on to a 560 lb. dolphin riding around in a swimming pool. It was so cute to watch her little pony tail bobbing and her little feet sticking up out of the water. She was so brave and the first to volunteer to do whatever they asked. I'm so glad that she has the spirit of adventure and not afraid to try new things.

Before they let them swim with them they got to pose for photos with the dolphin kissing their cheek and holding hands as Colby is doing below. They have these dolphins trained so well. They also would play splash with them.

They had other animals around the park also. A large variety of birds and reptiles. I thought this one was beautiful.

I sure wish we had another week there. I would really like to buy a beach house and rent it out all year so we could go when we want to. I know I am dreaming. I should look at some shacks on Beaver Lake, that would be more feasible for us.

I had to go back to work today. I am so tired of having nothing to do. It is really hard to sit at a desk for 8 hours when you have about 2 hours worth of work to do. Everyone please go buy a new home or how about a second home on the lake... Yeah that is a great idea.

Do any of you watch Jon & Kate plus 8? TLC is having a marathon of the show tonight. I can't imagine having twins and then sextuplets (is that what they are called?). Colby loves to watch it to.

Have a Terrific Thursday!